Modeling the Uniformity of Manifold

Research ArticleModeling the Uniformity of Manifold withVarious Configurations

Jafar M. Hassan,1 Thamer A. Mohamed,2 Wahid S. Mohammed,1 and Wissam H. Alawee1

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq2Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Correspondence should be addressed to Jafar M. Hassan; [email protected]

Received 14 February 2014; Accepted 24 July 2014; Published 24 August 2014

Academic Editor: Mohy S. Mansour

Copyright 2014 Jafar M. Hassan et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative CommonsAttribution License,which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The flowdistribution inmanifolds is highly dependent on inlet pressure, configuration, and total inlet flow to themanifold.The flowfrom a manifold has many applications and in various fields of engineering such as civil, mechanical, and chemical engineering.In this study, physical and numerical models were employed to study the uniformity of the flow distribution from manifold withvarious configurations.Thephysicalmodel consists ofmainmanifoldwith uniform longitudinal section having diameter of 10.16 cm(4 in), five laterals with diameter of 5.08 cm (2 in), and spacing of 22 cm. Different inlet flows were tested and the values of theseflows are 500, 750, and 1000 L/min. A manifold with tapered longitudinal section having inlet diameters of 10.16 cm (4 in) anddead end diameter of 5.08 cm (2 in) with the same above later specifications and flow rates was tested for its uniformity too. Thepercentage of absolute mean deviation for manifold with uniform diameter was found to be 34% while its value for the manifoldwith nonuniform diameter was found to be 14%. This result confirms the efficiency of the nonuniform distribution of fluids.

1. Introduction

Flow in manifold is of great importance in many industrialprocesses when it is necessary to distribute a large fluidstream into several smaller streams and then to collectthem into one discharge stream. Manifolds can usually becategorized into one of the following types [1]: dividing,combining, parallel, and reverse flow manifolds as shown inFigure 1. Parallel and reverse flow manifolds are those whichcombine dividing and combining flow manifolds and aremost commonly used in plate heat exchangers. In a parallelflowmanifold, the flow directions in dividing and combiningflow headers are the same which is generally referred to asa -manifold. In a reverse flow manifold, the flow direc-tions are opposite and it is referred to as a -manifold. Auniform flow distribution requirement is a common issuein many engineering circumstances such as plate-type heatexchangers, piping system, heat sinks for cooling of electronicdevices, fuel cells, chemical reactors, solar thermal collectors,flow distribution systems in treatment plant, and the pipingsystem of pumping stations.Therefore, for most applications,the goal of manifold design is to achieve a uniform flow

distribution through all of the lateral exit ports. A greatnumber of experimental, analytical, and numerical studiesdeal with flow in manifold.

The flow in distribution manifold has been studied byseveral investigators [26]. For instance, Bajura [2] developedthe general theoretical model for investigation of the per-formance of single-phase flow distribution for both intakeand exhaust manifolds. Bajura and Jones Jr. [3] extendedthe previous model and the prediction for the flow ratesand the pressures in the headers of dividing, combining,reverse, and parallel manifold configurations. Majumdar[4] developed a mathematical model with one-dimensionalelliptic solution procedure for predicting flows in dividingand combining flow manifolds. Bassiouny and Martin [5,6] presented an analytical solution for the prediction offlow and pressure distribution in both intake and exhaustconduits of heat exchanger for both types flow (-type and-type). A great number of experimental and numericalstudies covered the effect of design parameters on flowdistribution inmanifold. Choi et al. [7, 8] studied numericallythe effect of Reynolds number and the width ratio on theflow distribution in manifolds of a liquid cooling module for

Hindawi Publishing CorporationJournal of FluidsVolume 2014, Article ID 325259, 8 pageshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/325259

2 Journal of Fluids

electronic packaging. Kim et al. [9] investigated numericallythe effects of the header shapes and Reynolds number on theflowdistribution in a parallel flowmanifold of a liquid coolingmodule for electronic packaging, for three different headergeometries (i.e., rectangular, triangular, and trapezoidal) withthe -type flow direction. Jiao et al. [10] investigated experi-mentally the effect of the inlet pipe diameter, the first headersdiameter of equivalent area, and the second headers diameterof equivalent area on the flowmaldistribution in plate-finheatexchanger. Wen et al. [11] investigated flow characteristics inthe entrance region of plate-fin heat exchanger by means ofparticle image velocimetry (PIV). Tong et al. [12] investigatednumerically the strategies capable of perfecting manifolddesign to achieve the same rate of mass outflow througheach of the exit ports of a distribution manifold. Minqianget al. [13] performed a three-dimensional computational fluiddynamics (CFD) model to calculate the velocity distributionamong multiple parallel microchannels with triangle mani-folds.The effect of channel width and channel spacing on flowdistribution amongmicrochannels with U-shape rectangularmanifolds has been investigated by Mathew et al. [14]. Chenand Sparrow [15] present a method to investigate the effect ofgeometric shape of the exit ports onmass flow rate uniformityeffusing from a distribution manifold; three candidate exit-port geometries were considered: (a) an array of discreteslots, (b) an array of discrete circular apertures, and (c) asingle continuous longitudinal rectangular slot. In order tohave a valid comparison of the impacts of these individualgeometries, the total exit areas were made identical. Dharaiyaet al. [16] studied numerically the effect of tapered headerconfiguration to reduce flowmaldistribution inminichannelsand microchannels. Tong et al. [17] applied a logic-basedsystematic method of designing manifold systems to achieveflow rate uniformity among the channels that interconnect adistributionmanifold and a collection manifold.Themethodwas based on tailoring the flow resistance of the individualchannels to achieve equal pressure drops for all the channels.The tailoring of the flow resistance was accomplished bythe use of gate-valve-like obstructions. Huang and Wang[18] examined an inverse design problem to determine theoptimum variables for a three-dimensional -type compactparallel flow heat exchanger with the Levenberg-Marquardtmethod (LMM) [19]. To obtain the uniform tube flow rates,five different optimization design problems were examinedto demonstrate the validity of the study. Wang et al. [20]investigated experimentally and numerically the single-phaseflow into parallel flow heat exchangers with inlet and outletrectangular headers having square cross-section and 9 circu-lar tubes.Wang et al. [21] presented experimentally the resultsof liquid flow distribution in compact parallel flow heatexchanger through a rectangular and 5modified inlet headers(i.e., 1 trapezoidal, one multistep, 2 baffle plates, and 1 baffletubes header). Zeng et al. [22] performed a three-dimensionalcomputational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to calculate thevelocity distribution amongmicrochannelswith two differentmanifold structures. A similar performance improvementwith a more uniform flow distribution in methanol steamreformers was reported by Jang et al. [23]. Such findingsaffirm the influence of flow distribution uniformity on

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Figure 1: Different types of flow manifolds: (a) dividing, (b)combining, (c) -manifold, and (d) -manifold.

Pump

Sump

Supply tank

Sallow tank

Valve

Manometers to measure

Return water line

Manifold

Valve

Figure 2: Experimental setup.

the performance of microreactor devices and reflect theimportance of efficient manifold design. Tuo and Hrnjak[24] investigated experimentally and numerically the flowmaldistribution caused by the pressure drop in headers andits impact on the performance of a microchannel evaporatorwith horizontal headers and vertically oriented tubes. Kimand Byun [25] studied experimentally the effect of inlet con-figuration on upward branching of two-phase refrigerant in aparallel flow heat exchanger.Three different inlet orientations(parallel, normal, and vertical) were investigated.

In general, all previous studies for manifolds with differ-ent applications had shown that typical manifold design doesnot give a uniform flow distribution at outlets. Therefore, theobjective of the study was to predict the flow distributionthrough each outlet for circular cross-section header and todevelop an optimized tapered cross-section header designhaving a better flow distribution through outlets.

2. Methodology

2.1. Experimental Setup. The nonuniformity of flow distri-bution through parallel outlets is found to be more severein models with constant cross-sectional area headers [16].Hence, the objectives of the study are to predict the flowdistribution through each outlet of manifold with uniformlongitudinal section and to develop an optimized mani-fold with longitudinal section design having a better flowdistribution through outlets. The schematic diagram of theexperimental setup is shown in Figure 2. The experimentalsetup consists of water tank with over flow, steel support,

Journal of Fluids 3

(a) (b)

Figure 3: Experimental setup of two manifold configurations: (a) manifold with uniform longitudinal section and (b) manifold with taperedlongitudinal section.

pump, sump, and number of valves to set the required flowrate through two dividing manifolds. The first manifold iswith uniform longitudinal section while the secondmanifoldis with tapered longitudinal section (optimal taper shapefrom numerical section).

The rig was assembled at a selected site in fluid laboratoryof Machines and Equipment Engineering Department, Uni-versity of Technology, Iraq. The water tank is rested on 3mhigh steel elevated frame. At the outlet of each branch pipe,a shallow tank with cross-section 150 cm 150 cm is usedto collect the water flowing from the branch pipes as shownin Figure 3. The water from the branch pipes is measuredusing 50 liter capacity rectangular tank. A constant head wasensured during the experiments and, as a result, constant flowrate from branch pipes was obtained. Six uniformly spacedpiezometers were installed along the pipe to monitor thepressure head at the branch pipes. The spacing was 25 cm.

Dimensions of two configuration manifolds are shownin Figure 4. The manifolds have been fabricated with acrylicmaterial to ensure the developed flow and the good visibilityof flow pattern.The branch pipes junctions are at right angleswith header. The difference between two models only lies inthe header configuration.

2.2. CFDModel. In theCFDanalysis, amodel of themanifoldwith uniform longitudinal section was prepared. The config-uration used in the analysis is as shown in Figure 1(a). Later,the simulationwas performed to develop amanifold design toachieve nearly uniform flow distribution through the outlets.The geometry of manifold with tapered longitudinal sectionis shown in Figure 1(b).Themanifold diameter ratio (

1/2)

is varied parametrically to estimate the optimal tapered ratioand uniform flow distribution.

In the present problem, the fluid flow is three-dimensional; that is, all three possible velocity components(, , and ) exist and all three components depend on thethree coordinates of cartesian geometry. The statements ofthe governing parietal equations are

+V+

= 0. (1)

L

D2

AS

d

BH

D

D1

B = 11 cmS = 22 cmH = 35 cm

D = 10.16 cmD1 = changing D = 50.8 cm

D2 = changing

Figure 4: Manifolds used for conducting experiment.

-momentum is

[

(2) +

(V) +

()]

=

+

(eff

) +

(eff

)

+

(eff

) ,

(2)

-momentum is

[

(V) +

(V2) +

(V)]

=

+

(effV) +

(effV)

+

(effV) ,

(3)

4 Journal of Fluids

and -momentum is

[

() +

(V) +

(2)]

=

+

(eff

) +

(eff

)

+

(eff

) ,

(4)

where , V, and are the velocity components in threedimensions, respectively. is the fluid density, and theeffective viscosity, eff, is defined as eff = +.The turbulentviscosity depends on the selected turbulence model as well ason the specific application. In the present study, the realizableke model was chosen for application here [15, 25].

The simulation of the two geometries was conductedusing a commercial CFD software FLUENT. The design,meshing, and boundary definition of the geometries weredone using the presolver software, GAMBIT. Tet/HybridT-grid scheme was used for the mesh generation [16].The numbers of elements in each geometrical model wereapproximately 1,000,000. Grid independence test was carriedout to determine the best mesh spacing for the geometricalmodel.The solutions are considered to be converged when allof the residuals for the continuity and momentum equationsare less than or equal to 106.

2.2.1. Boundary Condition. The boundary condition used forthe simulation is shown in Table 1.

3. Result and Discussions

3.1. Numerical Result. A numerical model was prepared inthis study to

(1) determine the flow distribution and pressure drop atthe parallel pipes and to validate the result with thedata obtained from experimental setup,

(2) determine the optimum design of the tapered mani-fold that can give uniform water distribution throughchanging the diameter ratio (

1/2) parametrically.

CFD simulation was first performed on manifold withuniform longitudinal section having circular diameter of10.16 cm (4 in) and straight flow with outlets of constantcross-sectional areas. The axial momentum would progres-sively decrease. This would give rise to the static pressurefrom the entrance to themanifold dead end. Such an increasein static pressure should favour a higher efflux through thedownstream outflows. Figure 5 represents the static pressurecontour for circular cross-section manifold ( = 10.16 cm)with Reynolds number (Re = 150,000). It can be clearlyseen from Figure 5 that the pressure along the manifold isincreasing which results in nonuniformity flow.

To study the flow distribution among the parallel tubes,the dimensionless parameters, and

, are used to evaluate

Table 1: Boundary condition for two manifolds.

Boundary condition Test, 1 Test, 2 Test, 3Reynolds number 10 104 15 104 20 104

Inlet volume rate L/m 500 750 1000Inlet water temperature C 20 20 20Outlet gage pressure Zero Zero Zero

X

Y

Z

Pres

sure

10009008007004002001000100200300400

Figure 5: Pressure contour for flow in manifold with uniformlongitudinal section.

5

10

15

20

25

30

0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3

Circular cross-section manifold

Optimumdesign fortapereddistributionmanifold

Diameter ratio (D1/D2)

Non

unifo

rmity

coeffi

cien

t10

3(

)

Figure 6: The nonuniformity coefficient () for different diameterratio.

the flow distribution. Their definitions are given as follows[20]:

=

=1( )2

(5)

=

, (6)

where is the nonuniformity,denotes the flow ratio for th

pipe, represents volume flow rate for th pipe (m3/s), is

total flow rate (m3/s), is the number of parallel pipes in themanifold, and is the average flow ratio for the total tubeswhich is defined as = (

=1)/. The large value of

indicates high nonuniformity. For this reason, the minimumvalue of nonuniformity coefficient will give the optimumconfiguration for the tapered manifold.

From Figure 6, the values of nonuniformities () oftaperedmanifold are 0.025, 0.0226, 0.0222, 0.020, 0.019, 0.014,

Journal of Fluids 5

Outlet number

D2/D1 = 1.00; = 0.032D2/D1 = 1.25; = 0.0226D2/D1 = 1.42; = 0.0201

D2/D1 = 1.66; = 0.0190D2/D1 = 2.00; = 0.0140D2/D1 = 2.50; = 0.0180

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Flow

ratio

()

Figure 7: The flow ratio () for different diameter ratio.Pr

essu

re

500040003000200010000100020003000400050006000

XZ

Y

Figure 8: Pressure contour for flow in manifold with taperedlongitudinal section.

and 0.0182 at diameter ratio of 1, 1.1, 1.25, 1.42, 1.66, 2, and2.5, respectively. The () values are lower for the manifoldwith circular cross-section and the corresponding value is0.0345 as shown in Figure 6. Then the dead end diameter isreduced gradually from 10.16 cm (4 in) to 5.08 cm (2 in); theflow distribution is generally improved. The nonuniformity() decreases until it reaches a minimum value (optimaldesign); then it starts to increase although the diameter ratiowas increased too as shown in Figure 6.

From the results shown in Figures 6 and 7, the optimumconfiguration of distribution manifold can be determinedusing diameter ratio (

1/2) which is equal to 2. Figure 8

shows the pressure contour for tapered distributionmanifold.The pressure along the manifold was found to be nearlyuniform which resulted in a better flow distribution throughto outlets.

3.2. Experimental Results. Figure 9 shows the flow distribu-tion plots for manifold with uniform longitudinal section(diameter 10.16 cm) for three values of Reynolds number(100,000, 150,000, and 200,000). The flow through the firstoutlet was found to be very small compared with the lastoutlet as shown by pressure contours (Figure 5).

Uniform flow distribution through the manifold withtapered longitudinal section can be achieved using the design

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

1 2 3 4 5

Number of lateral

Line of ideal distribution ow rate

Flow

ratio

()

Re = 200, 000Re = 150, 000Re = 100, 000

Figure 9: Flow distribution plot for manifold with uniform longi-tudinal section (Re = 100,000, 150,000, and 200,000).

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

1 2 3 4 5

Number of lateral

Line of ideal distribution ow rate

Flow

ratio

()

Re = 200, 000Re = 150, 000Re = 100, 000

Figure 10: Flow distribution plot for manifold with tapered longi-tudinal section (Re = 100,000, 150,000, and 200,000).

obtained from the numerical model. Figure 10 represents theflow distribution from manifold with tapered longitudinalsection having inlet diameters of 10.16 cm (4 inch) anddead diameter of 5.08 cm (2 in). The improvement of flowdistribution through the outlets is compared to that obtainedfrom circular cross-section manifold as shown in Figures 9and 10.

The nonuniformity flow coefficient () was taken as aparameter to quantify the uniformity in flow distributionthrough the manifold outlet. The can be defined using(5). Flow distribution through the outlets is better at lower() values. Table 2 shows the nonuniformity coefficient forcircular and tapered manifold cross-sections from the valuesof Reynolds number (100,000, 150,000, and 200,000). Itcan be seen that the flow distribution was severe in case

6 Journal of Fluids

14%

17%

20%24%

25%

Port 1Port 2Port 3

Port 4Port 5

(a) Manifold with uniformlongitudinal section

20%

19%

19%

19%

23%

Port 1Port 2Port 3

Port 4Port 5

(b) Manifold with tapered lon-gitudinal section

Figure 11: Flow rate fraction percentage for two manifold configurations (Re = 150,000, = 750 L/min).

Table 2: The nonuniformity flow coefficient () for circular andtapered cross-section manifold.

Manifold cross-section The nonuniformity flow coefficient ()Circular Tapered

Re = 100,000 0.0367 0.0142Re = 150,000 0.0345 0.0140Re = 200,000 0.0340 0.0139

of manifold of circular cross-section. The flow was evenlydistributed for the manifold with tapered cross-section.

Figures 11(a) and 11(b) show the flow rate fraction of eachoutlet (which is the rate of outlet to the total flow rate inthe manifold). For nonuniform flow, results show that thesmallest flow rate occurred in outlet closest to manifold inletwhile highest flow rate occurred in the last manifold outlet.Let the respective outlets be numbered as (1) which is the firstoutlet while the last is outlet (5).The discharge from outlet (1)is lower by 44% than outlet (5), while, for the tapered cross-sectionmanifold, the percentage is reduced from 44% to 13%.

4. Model Validation Using Experimental Data

Experimental tests for flow distribution from two manifoldswith different configurations have been conducted. Thenumerical simulation results obtain by using FLUENT@ CFDpackage. The experimental test was conducted to measurethe flow rate at the 5 outlets. The accuracy of the solutionfrom the FLUENT@ CFD package in flow field calculationof the manifolds system is used to determine the optimaldesign. If the solution from the FLUENT@ CFD code cannotreproduce the actual performance of themanifold, thismeansthat configuration for the taper distribution manifold is notoptimum. The first task is thus to demonstrate the accuracyof the numerical solution. The computed and experimentalflow rate distribution per outlet for total = 750 liter/minute(Re = 1500000) are shown in Figures 12 and 13, respectively.It can be clearly seen that the differences in flow rates between

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

0 1 2 3 4 5 6Outlet number

NumericalExperimental

Flow

rate

(L/m

in)

Figure 12: Flow distribution per outlet for manifold with uniformlongitudinal section (Re = 150,000, = 750 L/m).

computed and measured are acceptable and therefore thevalidity of present numerical solution is evident.

5. Conclusions

The goal of this investigation is to evaluate the hydraulicparameter of manifold so that same rate of mass outflow canbe obtained from outlet of the manifold.The CFD simulationand experimental data at different outlets and configurations,namely, circular and tapered cross-section, were carried out.Severemaldistributionwas found at the outlet of themanifoldwith circular cross-section whereas the flow through themanifold with tapered cross-section was nearly uniform. Anumerical model was used to predict the flow across eachlateral for three different Reynolds numbers (i.e., 100,000,150,000, and 200,000) and the results were found to havethe same trend compared with experimental data. The flow

Journal of Fluids 7

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

0 1 2 3 4 5 6Outlet number

NumericalExperimental

Flow

rate

(L/m

in)

Figure 13: Flow distribution per outlet for manifold with taperedlongitudinal section (Re = 150,000, = 750 L/min).

distribution inmanifolds is independent of Reynolds numberbecause Reynolds number was found to have slight effect onthe uniformity of the mass effusion from the outlets.

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper.

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8 Journal of Fluids

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Modeling the Uniformity of Manifold